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OpenStack architect calls for calm after criticism

Rick Clark, the OpenStack architect who recently moved to Cisco after working on OpenStack at RackSpace, has called for calm after he criticised the process by which the governance of the OpenStack project was changed. The original posting called for the code to be placed into a foundation, for there to be more participation from the OpenStack partners and for more openness in how the OpenStack organisation was run.

"Since this seems to have spun out of control a bit", opened Clark in the follow-up posting before stating that he was a fan of Rackspace, that the company is integral to the success of Openstack and that he doesn't have any major problems with the governance. Clark left Rackspace because he "had a great opportunity at Cisco" and was unable to "effectively lobby for changes from the inside."

What Clark was concerned about was that the recent changes make to OpenStack's governance were prepared behind closed doors and that the process should have been open and transparent. "I don't think there was any ill intent on Rackspace's part making these changes. They just thought they could", said Clark. Depending on what the community wants, Clark plans to stay involved with OpenStack and has been nominated for the new governance board and to lead the Nova project. "I want to lobby Rackspace to do what I think is the right thing, because I know Rackspace wants to do the right thing", added Clark while noting that his original posting was "not to forecast the doom of OpenStack or brand Rackspace as a bad player."